Talk to Aljazeera: APM discusses protests, DPP succession plan

President Arthur Peter Mutharika has for the third time strongly refuted assertions that the May 21st Presidential election was rigged.

President Mutharika during the interview with Aljazeera

05October

President Mutharika said this during a half an hour program on one of the reputable media organization in the world, Aljazeera.

President Mutharika who responded to the questions calmly and composed reiterated that the 2019 elections were free, fair and credible as was declared by six election observers namely European Union, African Union, Commonwealth among others.

The half an hour program, centered much on most critical issues affecting the country including the alleged election fraud, good governance, corruption among others.

On Presidential election outcome, in which the opposition parties are challenging in court, President Mutharika said the election was free fair and credible and repeatedly said the way Malawi's elections were conducted should set an example to the rest of Africa and the world.

When asked if the current demonstrations being perpetrated by HRDC and the opposition political parties have affected his ability to run the country's affairs this is what the Malawi leader had to say: “It does not affect my programmes. All the programmes we promise during the campaign, we are doing them.”

On the same, President Mutharika said he is not against the demonstrations but is against violent demonstrations. He said no right is superior than the other and he has since challenged the demonstrators to stop because they don't have a point.

Professor Mutharika said he is not surprised with the post-election violence being championed by HRDC'S Timothy Mtambo and MCP's Lazarus Chakwera because they already planned for this in February following a leaked conversation between the two that they would not accept the election outcome not in MCP's favor.

“Under the constitution, peaceful demonstrations are allowed, and I support that. I am one of the drafters of the constitution, Am a Comparative Constitutional Lawyer myself. What has happened is that, these demonstrations are becoming violent, property has been destroyed- what the attorney general did was to go to court and get an injunction to stop violent demonstrations until the rganisers of the demonstrations can prove to the court that they are able to conduct peaceful demonstrations. I swear to protect the people, and also to protect the country and that’s what the attorney general was doing,” said the Malawi leader.

Asked whether he was grooming someone to take over from him after 2024, this was what Mutharika said: “There are many young people in the Government. In my cabinet, half the cabinet is under 40. We even have a 23 year old parliamentarian. I don’t think it is necessary to groom somebody. This is a democracy. This is not a monarchy and I cannot anoint anybody. The DPP will decide in 2023 at the convention on who should be the leader of the party and therefore the presidential candidate.”

The program also highlighted Malawi's commitment on climate change and bilateral relations with countries like China and Japan among other important issues affecting Malawi and beyond. This is not the first time for the President to speak to the media after May 2019 post-election matters. Professor Mutharika also recently had an interview with British Broadcasting Corporation-BBC.

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